Spike was upstairs putting the finishing touches on his suit. ‘Stupid tie!’ he thought as he muddled with it.
“Spike, are you coming?” called Twilight from downstairs.
“Just a second,” replied the young dragon.
As Spike continued to play with the knots, he eventually found one that worked. “Finally,” he said to himself.
Not wanting to waste any more time than he already had, Spike turned and ran out of the bedroom. Instantly he looked down the steps to see Twilight looking up at him with a surprised expression on her face. She was wearing a red dress, a pearl necklace, and her mane was curled.
Spike’s eyes widened as he looked at his lavender friend. “Wow,” they both said quietly.
“You look amazing Twilight.”
The lavender mare smiled and did her best to hide a blush. “You look great yourself Spike… So, shall we head out?”
“Well I don’t see anything else keeping us.”
----------
As Spike and Twilight walked down the dim streets of Ponyville, Spike kept glancing over at her. Thankfully she didn’t seem to take notice. ‘Wow, she is just so beautiful,’ he thought.
“Hey Spike?” asked Twilight.
‘Oh good god!’ he thought, ‘Please tell me she didn’t catch me!’ “Yes?”
“I was just wondering, out of all of the restaurants why did you pick this one? I mean it just seems like it’s more of a place for coltfriends and marefriends; not friend friends.”
Spike let out a mental sigh of relief. “Oh I don’t know. I just wanted to take you to someplace that you’ve never been. Plus Rarity would never shut her snout about this place so I figure that it must be good.”
“I know, but to be honest Spike I’m starting to think that it’s me you have a crush on.”
The young dragon’s eyes widened in complete terror when he heard this, but then Twilight began to laugh. ‘Oh thank god!’ thought Spike. “A-Are you kidding? That’s silly,” he replied in an uneasy tone.
Twilight began to giggle a bit. “I know I know. I was just messing with you… So anyways how expensive is this place?”
“Oh, it’s probably about fifty bits.”
Twilight’s eyes widened and her mouth almost dropped. “Fifty bits!? Spike, there is no way I can let you spend that much.”
“Twilight, don’t worry about it. I can afford it.”
“I brought some money Spike. I can pay for my half.”
“No, this is for you and I’m not going to let you do that. This wouldn’t be much of a gift if I had you pay for it.”
“B-But I-“
“Twilight no, just enjoy your night. Please?”
Twilight let out a sigh of defeat. “Okay fine, but I’m going to find a way to pay you back if it’s the last thing I do.”
“Okay, but promise me that you’ll just enjoy yourself.”
Twilight smiled slightly. “I promise Spike.”
----------
As the young dragon sat down at his table, a mare wearing a red vest placed two menus onto it. “I’ll be back shortly,” she said with a smile.
Spike opened the menu and almost instantly he realized that there weren’t very many things for dragons. ‘Great’ he thought as he continued down the page.
“Everything on here looks good,” said Twilight, who was levitating the menu in front of her. “I think I’ll have the daisy noodles with lemon grass… Wow! Never mind.”
“What is it?” asked Spike as he sat his menu down.
“It is really expensive.”
“Don’t worry about it Twi.”
“No, I don’t want you to spend that much. I’ll just get the sunflower and ryegrass salad.”
“Okay, fine.”
At about that time the same mare from earlier trotted over to their table. “Are you ready to order?” she asked happily.
Spike looked up to her and replied “Yes, I’ll be having the pasta with emerald shavings and she’ll be having the daisy noodles with lemon grass.” The moment those words left Spike’s lips, he could feel the lavender mare eyeing him.
“And what will you be having to drink?”
“I’ll just have water,” answered the young dragon.
“Water’s fine,” replied Twilight.
“Okay, I’ll have that right out to you,” said the waitress as she took the menus.
Spike just sat there, trying to hide a mischievous smile as he awaited her lecturing. And sure enough, the scolding began just as he expected.
“Why did you do that?” asked Twilight, in a somewhat demanding tone.
Spike chuckled softly. “Because I knew that you wouldn’t. Also I specifically told you to enjoy yourself.”
“Enjoying myself doesn’t include making you go bankrupt.”
“Twilight, I live with you, which means I don’t have to pay bills.”
“Yeah, but… That’s actually a really good point… How much more money do you have?”
Spike couldn’t help but chuckle a bit more.
“I’m not kidding. I’m still paying for that seven hour bath you took,” Twilight said in a joking tone.
Just as Spike was about to say something, the waitress brought their order over to them. “Here is your pasta with emerald shavings, here are your daisy noodles with lemon grass, and here’s the check when you’re done. I hope you enjoy your meal and let me know if you need anything.”
“Okay, thank you,” replied Spike. The young dragon looked down at his plate and could feel his mouth watering. He was just about to take the first bite when he heard Twilight let out a sad sigh.
The young dragon looked over to her with a confused look. “Is something wrong?”
“Spike, what’s this really about? You’re being too nice, you’re acting differently, and you bought me one of the most expensive things on the menu. Is there something I should know about?”
“What? No Twilight, I’m doing this because you’re my best friend and I care about you. What did you think all of this was for?”
“I keep thinking that you’re doing this because you’re about to leave.”
“What? Twilight, I’m never going to leave you.”
“But I thought you were mad at me after last night.”
“Oh gosh no! Twilight, why would I be mad at you for something like that?”
“I don’t know, it’s just the way you were acting.”
Spike could feel his cheeks begin to grow warm. “Twilight, I was acting like that because I had a lot on my mind at the time.”
“Like what?”
“Uhhh, can we just talk about something else? I’m over it now; it doesn’t matter.”
The lavender mare eyed Spike with a questioning look for a moment. “Um, okay?”
“Now go ahead and eat your dinner before it gets cold.”
“Oh, right.”
Once Spike thought he had convinced Twilight that nothing bad was about to happen, he dug into his dinner, but he was still thinking about what she said. ‘Does she really think I’m leaving?’ he thought, ‘Maybe I should start dropping hints now.’
“Hey, there holding a formal ball in the next room tonight, so do you want to go?” asked Spike.
Twilight’s eyes widened and she almost choked on her food. “What!?”
The young dragon let a slight laugh escape. “I’ll take that as a no.”
“No, it’s just I never thought I’d hear you ask me that.”
“Well, you never thought I’d take you to a place like this and yet here we are.”
Twilight smiled slightly. “And yet here we are.”
“So, would you like to dance after we finish?”
“Sure, I’d love to, but I’m still a little shocked that you’re asking me.”
‘That makes two of us’ thought Spike.
----------
Spike and Twilight were standing in the middle of the ball room, along with several other couples. The lighting was rather dim and a slow classical song was playing.
“Okay, so how do we do this? Remember this is my first time.” said Spike.
Twilight couldn’t help but let out a light giggle. “Put your arms around me.”
Spike’s eyes widened. “Do what now!?”
The lavender mare giggled a bit more. “Just do it.”
“Okay?” said Spike as he began to wrap his arms around his friend. “Now what?”
“Now you sway with the music.”
“Huh? How do I do that? It’s music.”
“Just do what I do.”
Slowly, twilight began to sway from side to side, so Spike attempted to do the same. Surprisingly he was actually able to do so without tripping over his own feet.
“There you go,” Twilight said happily.
“Huh, I actually haven’t done a face plant yet.”
The lavender mare couldn’t help but laugh.
After a few more moments of watching his feet, Spike looked up at Twilight to see her smiling at him. This instantly caused him to return one. ‘I’m surprised I haven’t woken up yet’ thought Spike.
As the pair continued to sway with the music, Spike began to slowly pull Twilight closer to him. Twilight felt this and began to lean closer herself. After only a few more seconds, the two were almost in a complete hug.
“Hey Twilight?” Spike said softly.
“Yeah?”
“I think that I-“
“Hello you two!” said a familiar, and feminine, voice.
Instantly the pair jumped away from each other and looked to where the voice had come from. Quickly, they sighted Rarity trotting towards them.
“Oh my, I had no idea that you two were… together,” said the white unicorn in a slightly surprised tone.
“Oh no,” began Twilight, “Spike and I aren’t dating.”
‘OH COME ON! REALLY?! REALLY?! WHY?!’ thought Spike.
“Well, it just appeared that you two seemed to be a bit more than friends.”
“I know how it looks, but that’s not it at all,” explained Twilight.
“Ah, well I just thought I’d say hi. I truly hope that I didn’t interrupt anything.”
“No, it’s quite alright. Spike and I were just about to head home.”
“Oh, well it was nice seeing you two.”
“You too Rarity.”
----------
As Spike and Twilight walked down the dark streets of Ponyville, the young dragon had a rather usual look on his face, but inside he was exploding. ‘Why!?’ he thought, ‘I was so close! I mean two words away! Is this some kind of sick joke!? I mean really why!?’
“Well I had a good time,” Twilight said cheerfully as she smiled at Spike.
The moment that the young dragon saw Twilight’s smile, all of his angry thoughts seemed to vanish. “I’m glad to hear that.”
“It’s kind of funny that you said we’d run into Rarity and sure enough…”
“Yeah that is kind of funny.” ‘God I hate being right!’ thought Spike.
“So, did you have a good time?”
Spike smiled a little. “Well I was with my best friend in the world, so of course I did.”
The lavender mare couldn’t help but smile a bit more when she heard this. “That’s really sweet of you to say Spike.”
“You know we should do this more often. It actually wasn’t a bad idea.”
“I’d like that.”
The little dragon let out a light yawn and said “I don’t know about you, but when we get home I’m going straight to bed.”
Twilight giggled a little. “Yeah I probably will too… Hey, what were you going to say when we were dancing?”
Spike could feel his cheeks begin to grow warm. “Uh, don’t worry about it. It’s nothing really.”
“Come on, tell me. I want to know.”
“Um, let’s just talk about something else.”
“Why? I promise I won’t be mad or anything.”
The young dragons cheeks felt like they were on fire they were so hot. “Ummmmmm, I had to go to the bathroom.”
The lavender mare immediately threw a hoof over her mouth and tried her best not to burst out laughing. “That’s it?”
“Uh, yeah.”
Twilight continued to giggle. “Um, okay then.”
----------
Spike was positioning the sheets on his bed as he slid into them, when Twilight trotted into the room. She wasn’t wearing her dress anymore and her mane looked about the same way that it normally did.
“Hey Spike,” she said happily.
The little dragon looked to her and asked “Yes?”
The lavender mare trotted over to him and said “I just wanted to say thank you. Tonight was wonderful.”
“Oh you’re welcome Twi. It was the least I could-“
Suddenly, as Spike spoke, Twilight leaned down and kissed him on the cheek.
The little dragon could feel his blood run cold when her lips touched him. ‘Is this really happening?’ he thought.
Twilight pulled back and smiled. “Thanks again Spike.”
“You’re welcome,” Spike said nervously.
Twilight just giggled a little and went over to her bed.
The little dragon slowly laid down and let his thoughts explode. ‘Does she like me!? What was that!? Holy crap! That was even better than I thought it would be! That was… whoa!’
----------
Spike slowly sat down on Twilight’s bed and placed a hand onto her shoulder. The lavender mare instantly awoke and smiled at her friend.
The young dragon returned the smile and said “Hey Twilight?”
“Yeah?” she replied.
“What I was really going to say is… I think I love you.”
Quickly, Twilight sat up and wrapped her forelegs around Spike. “I love you too.”
After a momentary embrace, Spike pulled away from his lavender friend, slightly, and looked into her eyes. Seconds later he pressed his lips to hers.
Twilight enjoyed every second of the kiss and didn’t wish for it to end, but she knew it had to eventually.
Slowly, Spike broke the kiss and just held Twilight in a tight embrace. “Twilight, I don’t think I love you anymore; I know I love you.”
----------
Twilight's eyes flew open as she sat up in her bed, gasping for air. As she did this, it was almost immediately apparent that her sheets were completely covered in sweat. "Not again," she said to herself.
As Twilight sat up in bed, Spike heard the noise of her mattress moving, which caused him to instantly awake. "Are you okay?" he asked in a sleepy tone.
The lavender mare quickly looked towards him, still with a great deal of shock present on her face. “Uhhhhh, yeah I’m fine. I just had a weird dream is all.”
“What about?”
“Uhhh, nothing; forget it. Good night Spike,” she said quickly. Then, less than a second later, she laid back down in her damp sheets. She found this very uncomfortable, but the thought of facing Spike at the moment was far more uncomfortable.